Tag Archives: Somalia

Never mind the fact that our national debt is now more than $17.5 TRILLION. That’s the official figure; the unofficial figure is many times higher.

And that’s why FOTM’s josephbc69 calls the US of A a “consumer warfare” state — a thoroughly bankrupt and debauched country built on permanent war and wasteful and unsustainable consumerism (of goods and “entertainment”), the latter to keep the sheeple in a permanently drugged somnolent state.

U.S. military advisors have secretly operated in Somalia since around 2007 and Washington plans to deepen its security assistance to help the country fend off threats by Islamist militant group al Shabaab, U.S. officials said.

The comments are the first detailed public acknowledgement of a U.S. military presence in Somalia dating back since the U.S. administration of George W. Bush and add to other signs of a deepening U.S. commitment to Somalia’s government, which the Obama administration recognized last year.

The deployments, consisting of up to 120 troops on the ground, go beyond the Pentagon’s January announcement that it had sent a handful of advisors in October. That was seen at the time as the first assignment of U.S. troops to Somalia since 1993 when two U.S. helicopters were shot…

On Oct. 3, 1993, a team of “Delta Force” U.S. Army Rangers in Super 61 Black Hawk helicopters went on a raid to capture Aidid.

But the operation that was to last only a few minutes dramatically extended to over 17.5 excruciating hours when one of the Black Hawks was shot down by the Somali rebels. Later a second Hawk was shot down as well.

The remaining Delta operators and US Rangers fought their way to the crash site. They were eventually rescued by the US Army 10th Mountain Division with the help of the UN forces consisting of Pakistani and Malaysian soldiers.

On Saturday, Dec. 8, 2012, more than 2,000 people showed up to apply for 200 slots in a government- taxpayer-subsidized public housing in Columbus, Ohio. The mob got so unruly and violent, the police were called and sprayed Mace to restore order.

Ohio’s 10TV reports that police said the crowd started to gather Friday night for the Saturday morning event at The Heritage apartment complex on Gatewood Road near Sunbury Road in northeast Columbus.

At its highest number, the crowd reached over 2,000 people.

Residents in the area called police overnight and complained about the noise and number of cars in the neighborhood. Then a melee broke out when the manager of the complex started to set up for the event just before 7 a.m. Saturday morning.

Several individuals were sprayed with Mace by police and treated at the scene by emergency crews. Police did not report making any arrests.

Here’s the 10TV news video:

Neither 10TV nor any news media would tell you what you can see with your own eyes that the mob mainly was comprised of blacks. Not just black, but from the head scarves of the women, black Muslims. Reader comments on the 10TV site say they are immigrants from Somalia, Africa.

According to the 2010 Census, blacks make up 28% of Columbus’ population. In 1900, whites made up 93.4% of the city’s population; in 2010, their proportion has declined to 61.5%. Wikipedia says 23% of Columbus’ immigrant population are from Africa.

The Hanford Site, in Washington, was an integral part of the US atomic bomb project, manufacturing plutonium for the first nuclear bomb and “Fat Man,” used at Nagasaki. As the Cold War waged on, it ramped up production, supplying plutonium for most of America’s 60,000 nuclear weapons. Although decommissioned, it still holds two thirds of the volume of the country’s high-level radioactive waste — about 53 million gallons of liquid waste, 25 million cubic feet of solid waste and 200 square miles of contaminated groundwater underneath the area, making it the most contaminated site in the US. The environmental devastation of this area makes it clear that the threat of radioactivity is not simply something that will arrive in a missile attack, but could be lurking in the heart of your own country.

9. The Mediterranean

For years, there have been allegations that the ‘Ndrangheta syndicate of the Italian mafia has been using the seas as a convenient location in which to dump hazardous waste — including radioactive waste — charging for the service and pocketing the profits. An Italian NGO, Legambiente, suspects that about 40 ships loaded with toxic and radioactive waste have disappeared in Mediterranean waters since 1994. If true, these allegations paint a worrying picture of an unknown amount of nuclear waste in the Mediterranean whose true danger will only become clear when the hundreds of barrels degrade or somehow otherwise break open. The beauty of the Mediterranean Sea may well be concealing an environmental catastrophe in the making.

8. The Somalian Coast

The Italian mafia organization just mentioned has not just stayed in its own region when it comes to this sinister business. There are also allegations that Somalian waters and soil, unprotected by government, have been used for the sinking or burial of nuclear waste and toxic metals — including 600 barrels of toxic and nuclear waste, as well as radioactive hospital waste. Indeed, the United Nations’ Environment Program believes that the rusting barrels of waste washed up on the Somalian coastline during the 2004 Tsunami were dumped as far back as the 1990s. The country is already an anarchic wasteland, and the effects of this waste on the impoverished population could be as bad if not worse than what they have already experienced.

7. Mayak, Russia

The industrial complex of Mayak, in Russia’s north-east, has had a nuclear plant for decades, and in 1957 was the site of one of the world’s worst nuclear accidents. Up to 100 tons of radioactive waste were released by an explosion, contaminating a massive area. The explosion was kept under wraps until the 1980s. Starting in the 1950s, waste from the plant was dumped in the surrounding area and into Lake Karachay. This has led to contamination of the water supply that thousands rely on daily. Experts believe that Karachay may be the most radioactive place in the world, and over 400,000 people have been exposed to radiation from the plant as a result of the various serious incidents that have occurred — including fires and deadly dust storms. The natural beauty of Lake Karachay belies its deadly pollutants, with the radiation levels where radioactive waste flows into its waters enough to give a man a fatal dose within an hour.

6. Sellafield, UK

Located on the west coast of England, Sellafield was originally a plutonium production facility for nuclear bombs, but then moved into commercial territory. Since the start of its operation, hundreds of accidents have occurred at the plant, and around two thirds of the buildings themselves are now classified as nuclear waste. The plant releases some 8 million liters of contaminated waste into the sea on a daily basis, making the Irish Sea the most radioactive sea in the world. England is known for its green fields and rolling landscapes, but nestled in the heart of this industrialized nation is a toxic, accident-prone facility, spewing dangerous waste into the oceans of the world.

5. Siberian Chemical Combine, Russia

Mayak is not the only contaminated site in Russia; Siberia is home to a chemical facility that contains over four decades’ worth of nuclear waste. Liquid waste is stored in uncovered pools and poorly maintained containers hold over 125,000 tons of solid waste, while underground storage has the potential to leak to groundwater. Wind and rain have spread the contamination to wildlife and the surrounding area. And various minor accidents have led to plutonium going missing and explosions spreading radiation. While the snowy landscape may look pristine and immaculate, the facts make clear the true level of pollution to be found here.

4. The Polygon, Kazakhstan

Once the location for the Soviet Union’s nuclear weapons testing, this area is now part of modern-day Kazakhstan. The site was earmarked for the Soviet atomic bomb project due to its “uninhabited” status — despite the fact that 700,000 people lived in the area. The facility was where the USSR detonated its first nuclear bomb and is the record-holder for the place with the largest concentration of nuclear explosions in the world: 456 tests over 40 years from 1949 to 1989. While the testing carried out at the facility — and its impact in terms of radiation exposure — were kept under wraps by the Soviets until the facility closed in 1991, scientists estimate that 200,000 people have had their health directly affected by the radiation. The desire to destroy foreign nations has led to the specter of nuclear contamination hanging over the heads of those who were once citizens of the USSR.

3. Mailuu-Suu, Kyrgyzstan

Considered one of the top ten most polluted sites on Earth by the 2006 Blacksmith Institute report, the radiation at Mailuu-Suu comes not from nuclear bombs or power plants, but from mining for the materials needed in the processes they entail. The area was home to a uranium mining and processing facility and is now left with 36 dumps of uranium waste — over 1.96 million cubic meters. The region is also prone to seismic activity, and any disruption of the containment could expose the material or cause some of the waste to fall into rivers, contaminating water used by hundreds of thousands of people. These people may not ever suffer the perils of nuclear attack, but nonetheless they have good reason to live in fear of radioactive fallout every time the earth shakes.

2. Chernobyl, Ukraine

Home to one of the world’s worst and most infamous nuclear accidents, Chernobyl is still heavily contaminated, despite the fact that a small number of people are now allowed into the area for a limited amount of time. The notorious accident caused over 6 million people to be exposed to radiation, and estimates as to the number of deaths that will eventually occur due to the Chernobyl accident range from 4,000 to as high as 93,000. The accident released 100 times more radiation than the Nagasaki and Hiroshima bombs. Belarus absorbed 70 percent of the radiation, and its citizens have been dealing with increased cancer incidence ever since. Even today, the word Chernobyl conjures up horrifying images of human suffering.

1. Fukushima, Japan

The 2011 earthquake and tsunami was a tragedy that destroyed homes and lives, but the effects of the Fukushima nuclear power plant may be the most long-lasting danger. The worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl, the incident caused meltdown of three of the six reactors, leaking radiation into the surrounding area and the sea, such that radiative material has been detected as far as 200 miles from the plant. As the incident and its ramifications are still unfolding, the true scale of the environmental impact is still unknown. The world may still be feeling the effects of this disaster for generations to come.

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Notice that 5 of the 10 most radioactive places on Earth are in the former Soviet Union, with 2 in Russia. Some socialist paradise the USSR was!

Just wait till the communist parties in China and North Korea finally fall, and the truth is out. You haven’t heard/seen real horror stories yet! Already, China’s known pollution is horrifying, with the world’s most polluted cities, air thick with smog and rivers blackened by wastes.

U.S. drone targets two leaders of Somali group allied with al-Qaeda, official says

A U.S. drone aircraft fired on two leaders of a militant Somali organization tied to al-Qaeda, apparently wounding them, a senior U.S. military official familiar with the operation said Wednesday.

The strike last week against senior members of al-Shabab comes amid growing concern within the U.S. government that some leaders of the Islamist group are collaborating more closely with al-Qaeda to strike targets beyond Somalia, the military official said.

We’re up to our eyeballs in debt. America’s national debt is at least $14.38 trillion. The plain truth is that our country is broke.

As Christians, we are exhorted to “love our neighbors.” But if we ourselves are broke, should we take in our “neighbors” from across the world? But that’s exactly what the federal government has been doing, “resettling” tens of thousands of mainly Muslim refugees, many from Africa’s Somalia, into the United States in the past few years.

The refugee resettlement is a federal government policy decision. Alas, that decision places great strains on local and state governments because it is they who bear the costs when those refugees are “resettled” in their communities.

In a determination letter to Congress, Obama announced that he will allow an additional 80,000 immigrants – mostly from Islamic countries in the Near (or Mid) East, South Asia, and Africa – to resettle in the United States during fiscal year 2011. Those 80,000 refugee immigrants are from the following places:

Refugee Resettlement Watch and other organizations have expressed grave concern that Obama is allowing so many immigrants into the country while so many Americans remain out of work and living in poverty. Here are some grim statistics:

According to the US Department of Labor, 14.8 million Americans remain unemployed. 6.1 million have been out of work for 27 weeks or over.

The U. S. Census Bureau shows that the median household income for Americans has fallen to $49,777 – a decline of 0.7% in the past year.

According to The Wall Street Journal, 14.3% of Americans live in abject poverty.

Obama says that the resettlement of refugees “is justified by humanitarian concerns or is otherwise in the national interest.” A refugee is defined by the US Department of Immigration and Naturalization as someone who has left his/her country due to persecution or a fear of persecution. However, the definition of refugee is ‘fudged’ in several cases. “Refugees” who have not left their country due to persecution, according to Obama’s determination letter, can still be called “refugees” if they are from Iraq, one of the Islamic countries of the former Soviet Union, or Cuba.

According to Section 413 (a) of the Immigration and Nationalities Act, the Office of Refugee Resettlement is required to submit an annual report to Congress on the activities of the refugees. The report is supposed to include the number who are on public welfare programs. But the Office of Refugee Resettlement has not issued a report since 2007.

But the American people are not helpless in the face of Obama’s “largesse” on our collective behalf.

Act for America, a grassroots citizen action network based in Pensacola, Florida, has been in the forefront on this issue.

Tennessee has been particularly hard-hit by this avalanche of refugees. So two dedicated ACT! for America members in Tennessee crafted a bill to strengthen the state and local governments’ role in the refugee resettlement process. The bill recently passed both houses of the Tennessee legislature and was signed into law by Governor Bill Haslam (R).

Tennessee’s new law gives local governments a much stronger voice in the refugee resettlement process by requiring that local governments must be consulted as to their ability to “absorb” refugees before commitments to settle refugees can be made. “Absorb” refers to the ability of a local community to handle the housing, education and other needs of incoming refugees.

Thank our Founding Fathers for fashioning the new American Republic as a federation, instead of a unitary state where the central or national government holds all the power.

There’s a neat website, the Institute of Economics and Peace’s Vision of Humanity, with a map of the world which gives the Global Peace Index (GPI) of countries. The lower the numerical GPI, the more peaceful the country. It’s an interactive map because you can put your cursor on any spot on the map and see the GPI of that country.

By “peace” is meant the “absence of violence.” The GPI is derived from a composite set of 5 indicators: violent crime, homicides, incarceration rates, policing, and availability of small arms.

Of the world’s 153 countries, the 10 most peaceful countries are:

Iceland: 1.148 GPI score

New Zealand: 1.279

Japan: 1.287

Denmark: 1.289

Czech Republic: 1.320

Austria: 1.337

Finland: 1.353

Canada: 1.355

Norway: 1.356

Slovenia: 1.358

The 10 least peaceful countries are:

Somalia: 3.379

Iraq: 3.296

Sudan: 3.223

Afghanistan: 3.212

North Korea: 3.092

Congo: 3.016

Russia: 2.966

Pakistan: 2.905

Israel: 2.901

Central African Republic: 2.869

Although peace in the United States has been on the increase, recording an 8% improvement since 1991, our country still ranks only in the middle of the world’s countries in peace and disorder, with a GPI rank of 82 (out of 153) and a GPI score of 2.063.

Even Greece and Egypt are judged more peaceful than the U.S.! Dspite Greece’s bankruptcy and anti-austerity riots, the country has a GPI rank of 65 and a GPI score of 1.947. And in spite of Egypt’s recent massive anti-government demonstrations, the country still scored a GPI rank of 73 and a score of 2.023.

The GPI study found that societies that are highly peaceful also perform exceptionally well in other ways. The most peaceful countries also have higher per capita income, higher levels of well-being, more freedom, perform better at sustainability, and appear to have a more equitable distribution of social spending. The study also found a positive correlation between peace and a collection of other factors — including access to basic services, education, health, and opportunity to succeed.

America’s GPI score will surely worsen, as our national debt piles up even more above the present $14+ trillion, government becomes increasingly insolvent, necessitating more cuts in spending and entitlement….

On the bright side, at least you’ll know which country to move to, if you have the means to bail out of the coming maelstrom. [bitter laugh]